Revolutionary Recognition

To find out more about our authors and books visit www.bloomsbury.com and sign up for our newsletters. FOREWORD BY JOHN HOLLOWAY xi with its emphasis on 'dignity' as the central principle of organization and struggle. The idea of prefiguration is a reaching towards a mutually recognitive society through the creation of similarly recognitive organizing here and now. In that sense, Richard and Adrian are right to say that the Left-Hegelian tradition is at the centre of current struggles. Yet even here it is important to emphasize the negativity of the tradition, the fact that the movement of mutual recognition is a movementagainst. Against the commodity form and the clotting that is inherent in that form. Against the dangers of encroaching identities, perimeters (sometimes tied to the notion of community), definitions, roles, never far from even the most exciting movements. 1 That is precisely why the notion of mutual recognition is so important to political practice, as restless, unceasing critique, as constant push against the obstacles that impede its flow. To recover the force of 'mutual or revolutionary recognition' and with it Hegel's Phenomenology and the Left-Hegelian tradition and to place them in the centre of the current longings for a different world, where they are already -what a fabulously important project! Read on. Or if you've skipped over this foreword, don't worry. The exciting part starts in the pages that follow. Revolutionary Recognition represents a major contribution to contemporary political theory. It argues that human emancipation is only possible in a society characterised by 'mutual recognition'. In present-day political theory, the term 'recognition' has become popular and widely discussed, but has become synonymous with reformist scenarios, such as social democratic politics and the politics of identity. Richard Gunn and Adrian Wilding undertake a comprehensive critique of existing understandings of recognition, particularly those of Axel Honneth and Charles Taylor, returning 'recognition' to its original meaning in the work of Hegel and Marx, and showing how mutual recognition has revolutionary rather than merely reformist implications. Gunn's and Wilding's work is unapologetically political and introduces a new principle – 'mutual recognition' – around which radical politics can organise. This book is a ground-breaking contribution to left wing theory and is relevant as both a scholarly text and a rallying cry to the Left. Title Page Copyright Page Contents Foreword by John Holloway Acknowledgements Introduction Chapter 1: Hegel’s dangerous idea Recognition in the Phenomenology Recognition in Hegel’s later work Revolutionary recognition Chapter 2: Marx as thinker of recognition Marx on commodity exchange Marx on property Marx on class Marx on communism Chapter 3: Revolutionary or less-than-revolutionary recognition? Recognition and multiculturalism Recognition in Honneth A return to revolutionary recognition Chapter 4: Mutual recognition in practice Hierarchy or horizontalism? Commoning and the problem of scale Chapter 5: Recognition’s environment Red and green Environmental justice as mutual recognition Property or planet Recognition’s environment Conclusion Notes Foreword Introduction Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 References Name & Subject Index "The book is a major contribution to contemporary political theory, arguing that human emancipation is only possible in a society characterized by 'mutual recognition', understood in the Hegelian sense. In present-day political theory, 'recognition' is generally associated with reformist scenarios - seen as a way of legitimating social-democratic institutions or validating identity politics. Gunn and Wilding undertake a wide-ranging critique of these understandings of recognition, especially those of Charles Taylor and Axel Honneth, and argue, via Hegel and Marx, for mutual recognition's revolutionary (not reformist) character. Mutual recognition, they contend, can and should become the rallying cry of the Left"-- Provided by publisher